After a busy weekend in New York City, I am finally caught up on my sleep, and I can't wait to tell you about all the great food I had! I stayed with my cousin Beth, and her fiance, Matt. Lucky for me, they both love food and know all the great spots.
Thursday night, we went to "Mary's Fish Camp" in Greenwich Village. It is a small restaurant that specializes in fish and seafood. We started with raw Malpeque oysters, fried Canadian smelt, and salt-crusted shrimp. Then we split a breaded cod sandwich with a celery root remoulade. We still had wine to drink, so we ordered a lump crab gratin. Everything was scrumptious, especially that cod sandwich. Wow!
The wine of the weekend was Gruner Veltliner, a white Austrian wine that was beautiful before, during, and even after dinner. Casually known as "Gru-Vee", I don't know what the availability is like here in Ontario, but there was no shortage of it in NY! If you can find it, try it.
For breakfast the next morning, Beth had made granola and we had that with Greek yogurt and Tasmanian honey. After a morning of shopping, we went to Bouchon Bakery for lunch. I had a braised beef brisket sandwich with parsley pesto on grilled farmhouse bread. For dessert we shared three tiny brownies with cherry ice cream and cherry compote. After lunch, I zipped over to Kitchen Arts & Letters, a well-known cookbook store. I was very giddy to be there and enjoyed every minute. They had every cookbook you could ever imagine, and then some. Unfortunately (and fortunately), I didn't see any book that I couldn't live without, so I wasn't tempted to spend my trip budget on books.
For dinner on Friday night, we walked up the block to an Italian restaurant specializing in regional cuisine of Florence. The restaurant was called La Cantina Toscana. For starters, we had two portions of spinach & ricotta "gnudi". You are not the only one questioning what these might be. Here's what I found out...
"You may not have noticed, but we are in the midst of a gnudi craze. Gnudi (a.k.a. ignudi, nudi, or nudi ravioli) are what Florentines call the loosely packed spinach-and-ricotta dumplings that look like slightly overgrown gnocchi. They’re called gnudi ravioli (naked ravioli) because the poor little lumps are essentially doughless, like lost ravioli fillings with no place to call home. Which is not to say they aren’t delicious" - New York Magazine
These little gems were absolutely delicious. It didn't hurt that they were floating in sage butter. For my main course, I had braised rabbit with a soft polenta. And then we shared a tiramisu for dessert. When it was time to walk home, I seriously considered just laying down on the sidewalk and rolling down the hill. Imagine living within walking distance of this little gem.
Saturday night, we had reservations at a restaurant called Blaue Gans (Blue Goose), located in Tribeca. An Austrian restuarant isn't all that common, in fact I don't recall having ever been to one before. We started with a bottle of Gruner Veltliner (again) and two orders of raw oysters from Long Island. Mmmmm. For my main, I had the calves liver special, served with apples and cippoline onions (sweeter, flat, Italian onions). The big surprise of the evening was walking into Blaue Gans, and seeing my friend Annie and her husband, enjoying dinner. Complete coincidence. What are the odds of running into my friend from Harrow, in a restaurant, in NYC? We probably should have went out and bought lottery tickets that night!
Sunday morning was here before I knew it, and I was heading for home. It was a great weekend and the food was definitely a highlight. Thanks again B & M!
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